Mobile subscribers are becoming increasingly connected to their mobile handsets (also referred to as mobile terminals), which are often viewed as a necessary accessory during waking hours. These mobile terminals are used in various environments (e.g., outdoors in sunlight, in dimly-lit restaurants, etc.) It is often desirable to be able to reconfigure the appearance of the terminal's screen in various ways to, for example, enhance readability (e.g., background/foreground colors, font size, etc.).
The display screen of prior art portable terminals is so small for the purpose of portability that only a limited number of display elements can be displayed. Users of desktop computers are well familiar with changing attributes of the screen display, such as background, foreground, desktop images, screen savers, font styles and sizes, etc. Unfortunately, users of mobile terminals, such as cell phones, cannot modify the appearance of the display screens on the mobile terminals. As well as the necessity of modifying mobile terminal displays for increased readability, it is also desirable to modify the appearance of the mobile terminals for just aesthetic reasons. Unlike desktop computers, mobile terminals do not have enough memory to store a large variety of backgrounds, foregrounds, font styles and sizes, and other attributes. Furthermore, in the prior art there is no support by networks for implementing customization of screen displays, for example, for mobile terminals.
It is a drawback of the prior art that there does not exist network support for specifying, for example, the visual appearance of a mobile terminal from a variety of possible foreground and background colors, font styles and sizes, etc. In more general terms prior art systems do not provide network support for an attribute feature for customization of mobile terminals by a telecommunication network.